


Just Be

by mukeofficial



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Anal Sex, Blow Jobs, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Eventual Smut, I'll add more tags later, M/M, Mutual Pining, footballprodigy!calum, guitarteacher!michael, mathtutor!luke, olderpopularkid!ashton
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-21
Updated: 2015-04-08
Packaged: 2018-03-18 23:15:33
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3587658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mukeofficial/pseuds/mukeofficial
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Luke and Michael became best friends in kindergarten, worst enemies in middle school, friends again in high school, and sometimes the path to love isn't as easy and romantic as it is in the movies.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Kindergarten

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wolvernation](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wolvernation/gifts).



> Hello everyone!!
> 
> I just wanted to thank jess for helping me come up with the idea for this fic and carly for giving me encouragement to write it!
> 
> Also, this fic is based off a song called Just Be by Paloma Faith. A section of the lyrics will be featured at the beginning of each chapter.
> 
> Now, ENJOY KINDERGARTEN!MUKE:

_Cause there's no one else in this world  
That I'd rather be unhappy with_

It’s the first day of kindergarten, and Luke is crying. All his life so far, as short as it has been, he has never once been in trouble with any kind of authority. But when he accidentally tripped and spilled his cup of milk all over another small girl’s dress, the teacher gave him a detention, because she believed he had done it on purpose. The small blond boy thought this was the end of the world. But it was actually just the beginning of his.

At 1pm on the dot, nearly all of the 5 year olds were released outside into the summer air to let off their energy. Luke would not be joining them, though – he was required to stay inside during this recess time for his detention. A few tears rolled down his cheeks as he tried his best to not sob out like he had earlier. He tried holding his breath to do this, but it just made him cough and his nose feel weird.

It was only the first day of school, so there were barely any kids in detention. Only one other student besides Luke was in there; a boy with long, dark blond hair that fell in his eyes, that he was constantly shoving back with his fingers. Luke remembered vividly why this other boy had gotten detention – he had kicked over another boy’s block tower he had made. The boy with long blond hair had claimed that the other boy had told him it was okay, but the crying dark haired boy begged to differ. Whatever the truth was, the destructive boy was now in detention, sitting next to Luke, both being forced to practice their writing letters.

Luke was determined to do such a good job at writing letters that his teachers would forgive him instantly, and he would never get detention again. He was writing diligently when the boy next to him spoke.

“Hi, I’m Michael.” The boy said smiling. Luke looked up at their teacher in fear she would reprimand them for talking. But instead she seemed uninterested in the young boy’s chatter, almost as if she had expected it.

“I’m Luke.” Luke said bravely, looking back at Michael for the first time.

“You have blue eyes.” Michael said as he squinted, looking into Luke’s eyes.

“So do you.” Luke said, a smile appearing on his face from the other boy’s fascination.

“Yeah, but yours are even _more_ blue than mine.” Michael then used his fingers to stretch his eyelids out so his eyes seemed huge. This made Luke giggle. Michael nodded to Luke would do the same, so Luke did. The two boys were staring at each other making ridiculous faces and laughing when their teacher shushed them.

“Back to work, you too.” She said, barely glancing up from her book.

Luke’s insides felt tight as he returned to writing, not sparing a glance at Michael. It took the other boy a few seconds, but he finally returned to writing at well. The silence between them didn’t last long.

“Why do you hold your pencil like that?” Michael asked, twisting his head as he watched Luke write. Luke immediately paused.

“I always hold my pencil like this.”

“Well, it’s wrong.” Michael concluded, picking Luke’s pencil out of his own hand. Luke squeaked and looked at their teacher, expecting her to yell at Michael, but again she looked too into whatever book she was reading to notice. Luke turned his head back to Michael.

“See, you hold your pencil like this.” Michael held his hand around the pencil in a fist-like way, the same as Luke had been holding it. Luke knew – and had always known, thanks to his mother’s scolding – that he never correctly knew how to hold a pencil. After time and time again of Luke’s mother trying to teach him correctly, she gave up. She decided to let the school system teach him the correct way.

“When you should be holding it the way I do.” Michael changed his hand so he was holding it the correct way, the same way Luke’s mother had been telling him for months. Luke sighed and attempted to grab it back from Michael, but the other boy moved out of his reach. “Hey! I’m just trying to help. Here, you try. Hold it the same way you would if you were picking up a marble, except different.”

Luke thought that this boy was crazy. Even so, when Michael handed Luke back his pencil and stared back at him expectantly, Luke felt the need to do as he said. Luke did his best to arrange the pencil in his fingers in a way that looked like he was picking up a marble, the way that Michael had suggested. And just like that, Luke looked at his fingers with wide eyes – realizing he was actually holding it properly and easily.

The biggest smile appeared on Michael’s face. “SEE!? I told you!” Michael patted Luke’s shoulder and Luke smiled at him, giggling a little. “Now, write!”

Luke took a deep breath. Now he feared disappointing Michael, and that was the last thing he wanted to do. Michael seemed nice and cool and fun, and Luke wanted to be his friend. Luke had never had a friend before, but his older brothers Jack and Ben had lots of friends, and he wanted to have one too.

Luke carefully did his best to move his fingers to draw the letter “o” on his paper, and to his surprise he did it effortlessly. Michael cheered loudly, holding his hand up to high five Luke, and Luke laughed and high fived him back. It was amazing how the littlest things got Michael excited, and it made Luke feel all warm inside.

Unfortunately, this action got the attention of their teacher. She stood up from her desk and looked like she was going to yell at the two boys. Luke swore he saw his 5 years of life flash before his eyes. But before she was able to do so, the rest of the class flooded in the doors from recess. Their teacher just shrugged and decided to let them off the hook this time.

When the rest of the class came in, Luke watched Michael run over to the blocks to start playing with them again. Luke began to feel this aching pain inside of him. He wanted to go over and play with Michael, but Michael had left so quickly without inviting Luke. Maybe he had only been talking to Luke when he had no one else to talk to. Luke rested his head on the table in sadness.

Before even 30 seconds passed, Luke heard someone calling his name. Luke’s head shot up and Michael was running over to him, holding a basket in his hands. He set it on the ground next to Luke, and when the small blond boy looked in, he smiled at what he saw.

“Let’s play marbles.” Michael stated, grabbing Luke’s arm and pulling him down next to him. Luke of course didn’t resist. He couldn’t stop smiling the entire time Michael explained how to play the game with him, because he couldn’t believe it was only his first day of kindergarten and he had already made his first ever friend.

~~~

As the months passed, Luke was positive he could say that he and Michael had gone from being just friends to being best friends. Michael was his favorite person on earth, and he loved spending any and all the time he got to with him.

He loved how when he and Michael would begin to play a game Michael would ask Luke if he knew how to play, and even if Luke knew how, he would say he didn’t; just to see the excitement on Michael’s face when he got to explain the game. He loved the way Michael would remind Luke that _he and Luke_ were best friends, which meant that Luke always had to sit with him at lunch and no one else.  Luke loved whenever he was too nervous to ask a question in class, he would whisper it into Michael’s ear, and the slightly older boy would yell the question out for him. Luke thought this was one of the best things about Michael – that he seemed to not fear anything. Even if it got him in trouble sometimes.

Michael got in trouble a lot more than Luke ever imagined anyone ever could. They were never for anything serious – usually just for talking out of hand too many times, being too loud during nap time, or getting too rowdy during their play time. Because of this, Michael spent many days in detention, when his classmates went outside for recess. Luke always hated recess without Michael – he felt bored and wrong doing anything without the other boy. They had become so co-dependent of each other that doing anything without the other became a chore.

Luke had come to a resolution to this though. After many recesses spent alone, Luke finally walked over to the school building from the playground and found the window to their classroom; the one Michael would sit in during his detention. From every recess on that Michael had detention – which was a good amount of them – Luke would sit outside the window, making faces at him and dancing in order to make Michael laugh. Making Michael laugh had quickly become Luke’s life goal.

Luke also found out very quickly that Michael was a very cuddly person. He would always give Luke a really big hug at the beginning of every day, cuddle with him during nap time (if his heart wasn’t set on torturing other sleeping students that day), and one right before they left to go home. Luke’s parents were always very loving towards him and gave him hugs, but Luke’s brothers never did, so it was odd for the blond boy to adjust too. But once he did, these hugs and cuddle sessions with Michael became the favorite parts of his day.

That wasn’t the only way Michael effected Luke’s life. As the year wore on, Luke became more confident and competitive to succeed, as Michael was a smart boy himself and very competitive as well. Luke liked Michael’s longer hair so much that he begged his mother to let his hair grow out just a little bit more, like Michaels, and Luke’s mother willingly obliged. Michael taught Luke how to tie his shoelaces, how to whistle, and how to spell Luke’s favorite zoo animal – penguin.

Luke and Michael had so much help becoming who they were by the end of the year, it was hard to remember what personality traits they had taken from who. In their now six year old minds, though, it didn’t matter. As long as they had each other, to continue this streak of teaching each other things and sharing cuddles, both boys were happy.

~~~

It was the last day of kindergarten, and the gymnasium was full of kindergarteners wearing graduation caps and pins stating “You did it!” on them. There were many happy parents in the gym as well. Their school held a sort of graduation for the kindergarteners, because next year they would be going to the elementary school across the street.

Luke was holding his mother’s hand, looking around the room desperately for his best friend. When he spotted Michael across the room, also holding a woman’s hand – who Luke assumed was his mother – Luke began to run towards him, towing his mother behind.

When Michael saw Luke, he let his mother’s hand go all together to run at Luke, and the two boys hugged. Michael’s cap was knocked off as Luke stood on his tiptoes to put his chin on Michael’s shoulder, since Michael was just a little taller than him.

“Your shirt matches your eyes today.” Michael commented as the two boys finally broke apart.

“I know.” Luke said, blushing at the fact he had worn this outfit specifically hoping Michael would point out how they matched his eyes. “You have hat hair, Mikey.”

“Shut up, Lukey.” Michael said, laughing as he grabbed his hat off the ground to put on his head. Luke had originally coined the term “Mikey” as a nickname for Michael, and Michael had mimicked it for a nickname for Luke.

“Michael Gordon! Language!” Michael’s mother immediately said, leaning down to squeeze Michael’s shoulder lightly. “I assume this is the famous Luke you’ve told me all about?”

Luke watched as Michael’s cheeks turned red, and Luke laughed at him, pointing.

“Yes it is!” Luke’s mother said from behind him. She was holding his shoulders, as if afraid he was going to run away from her again. “And Luke, is this your best friend Mikey?”

It was Luke’s turn to blush, and Michael laughed at him as well. Luke could never win.

“I’m Liz, by the way.” Luke’s mother extended a hand out to Michael’s mother.

“Karen.” Michael’s mother smiled, taking her hand. “Oh! I just remembered, when we went to the zoo the other day, Michael asked me over and over to get something for his best friend at school, and it’s in my purse here…”

Luke’s eyes widened as Michael’s mother pulled out a small stuffed animal baby penguin out of her large purse. She handed it to Michael who immediately took it and shoved it into Luke’s hand.

“It’s your favorite animal! I saw it and thought of you!” Michael beamed, looking proud of himself.

“I love it Mikey!” Luke exclaimed, wrapping his arms around Michael’s neck, pulling him into another hug.

“Luke has something for Michael as well.” Liz said, shuffling around in her purse. She pulled out a sheet of paper, folded twice, and handed it to Luke. Luke in turn handed it to Michael, who opened it as fast as he could.

“Lukey, is this us?” Michael asked, pointing to the two boys in the picture. They were holding each other’s hand, and in their empty hands they were each holding an animal – Luke a penguin, Michael a kitten (which was his favorite animal).

“Yeah! That’s me, and that’s you.” Luke said excitingly, pointing to each boy respectively. Michael ran his fingers over the crayon drawing, and then looked back into Luke’s eyes.

“You’re such a good artist, Luke. I love it!” Michael hugged the picture to his chest, eyes closed, and twisting on his feet. Luke felt the warmness in his stomach that he always felt whenever he made Michael smile.

“They’re so adorable.” Karen commented, her hand on her heart.

“Indeed.” Liz agreed. “Is it okay if I get a picture of both of them? My husband has been dying to see the boy Luke’s been going on and on about.”

“Of course!” Karen nodded, reaching into her own purse again. “I’ll get one also.”

“Smile, boys!” Liz said, as she began to look through her camera.

Michael threw an arm around Luke’s shoulders, and Luke held up his penguin in front of him. The two boys put on a cheesy smile for their mothers as they took the pictures.

“Well, Luke, we have to get going.” Liz stated, “We have to go pick up Jack and Ben from across the street.”

“Should we exchange numbers first?” Karen suggested. “In case these boys begin to miss each other too much, and need to have a playdate?”

“Good idea!” Liz said, beginning to get out her cell phone. “Luke’s birthday is coming up, and I’m sure he’ll want Michael to be at it…”

As the two women made small talk, exchanging numbers, Michael grabbed Luke’s hand and looked at him.

“I’m going to miss seeing you every day, Lukey.” He said, looking sad.

“We’ll still see each other, Mikey! Don’t be scared!” Luke was smiling, unafraid. “My birthday’s coming up, and you are DEFINITELY invited, so don’t be worried!”

“I know.” Michael said, a soft smile returning to his face. Then he looked concerned. “But Luke, if you ever miss me, just give this little guy here a squeeze,” Michael put his hand over Luke’s, that was holding the penguins, “and know that it won’t be long before we see each other, okay?”

Luke giggled. “Okay, Michael.”

“Well, we’ll keep in touch!” Karen said to Liz. “It was nice to meet both of you! Let’s go, Michael.”

“Bye, Lukey!” Michael waved with his free hand, that wasn’t holding Luke’s drawing.

“Bye, Mikey!” Luke waved back, grinning widely at his most loved friend.

And just like that, the two young boys walked away from each other, one of their hands clutching their gifts to each other and the other in their mother’s. Luke wasn’t scared at all about spending time away from Michael, because he knew their friendship was long enough to spend a few weeks apart from each other.

What Luke wasn’t expecting was his father to get a new job over the summer. What Luke wasn’t expecting was that job to be nearly 900 kilometers away, all the way in Melbourne before he even had his 6th birthday party. What Luke wasn’t expecting was to potentially never see his best friend again.


	2. 6th Grade

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: this chapter was not beta'd because SOMEBODY - *cough jess cough* - had to travel across the country this weekend for her summer job instead of beta this chapter. Pft some messed up priorities am I right?
> 
> Anyways *strums guitar* here's wonderwall:

_You wear me out with frustration, and heartache, and anger  
But we wait for the wave just to wash it away_

“LUKE! We’re leaving in 5 minutes.” Luke heard his mother’s voice echo from the hall.

“With or without you.” Another voice added, that the blond quickly identified as his older brother Jack’s.

Luke stood in front of his full-length mirror, looking over his outfit one last time. He was wearing the white button down shirt and dress pants this new school required him to wear. And to be honest, the uniform could be worse. Nothing could beat the last school he attended – long story short, wearing a tie every day can result in nearly choking oneself if oneself is as clumsy as Luke is.

“Bro.” Luke snapped his head around to see his brother with his head in the doorway, rolling his eyes at him. “Everyone will look just as ridiculous as you do in that uniform. Let’s go.”

Luke scoffed, turning back to the mirror to fix his hair. “I don’t understand why the high school doesn’t have uniforms. It’s not fair.”

“Trust me; fitting in during the dreaded “middle school years” is far more important than standing out. Besides, it’s like a rite of passage.” Jack explained, walking up to stand behind Luke in the mirror. Jack was a 16 – nearly 17 – year old  high school junior this year, and basically towered over 11 year old Luke. “You’ve got to suffer through the pain of dressing up like _this_ ” he said, referencing to Luke’s whole outfit, “every day for 3 years, so you can start dressing like _THIS,”_ referencing to himself, “in high school.”

“At least it’s not as bad as any of the uniforms _you_ had to wear in middle school.” Luke commented back with a smirk.

“Touché,” Jack said as he winced, and Luke could easily remember Jack’s whining about his 8th grade uniform he had to wear only years ago.

Luckily for Luke, he’s never had to experience a bad dress code for too long. His family rarely stayed in the same town for more than a year or two. It was hard for him to get used to at first – but because he was young, it became a norm to him.

“ _But,_ on the bright side, you get to wear this _same_ shirt and these _same_ pants every day for the next three years!”

Luke was now and going into 6th grade. His mother had promised him and Jack – Ben was now attending university –their father was returning to one of his old jobs, a secure one, so they would be staying in this town for a lot longer than they had ever spent in a town before.

The younger boy sighed. “At least you have friends here you get to go back to; you know, from when we lived here before.”

“Six years is a long time, Luke.” Jack said, turning to walk towards the door. “People can change a lot in that time. And even if that wasn’t the case, I couldn’t even tell you any of the names of the kids I went to school with here. All the schools and names and faces have sort of blurred together in my head over the years, so I’m not much better off than you.”

Luke knew this was a lie. It was much harder for his older brothers to move around a lot, due to them having to make friends and lose them with every school they attended and left. It was easier for Luke because…well…friends were rare to him. He usually wouldn’t make any friends until  the last days spent at a school, so there was never a serious bond connecting them.

That wasn’t going to be the case this year, though. Because they were staying in this town until Luke graduated – at least that was the plan - Luke was determined to make some life-long friends that he wouldn’t have to worry about moving away from.

“I think mom mentioned you having a really good friend during the time we lived here before anyways.” Jack said, mindlessly scrolling through his phone. “You should try to see if he still lives here.”

“Oh yeah?” Luke perked up, grabbing his book bag to follow his brother out of his room. “What was his name?”

“It started with an M…hmm… Mitchell? Marcus? Something like that, ask mom about it later.” Jack led the way down the stairs, and Luke nodded in response.

~~~

So far, things hadn’t gone as planned. Luke had tried to be nice to the kids in his classes, but he was so nervous that most of his topics of discussion felt forced and awkward. The blond had hoped that he would have made at least one acquaintance he would be able to sit with at lunch, but by the time lunch came around he was empty-handed.

The cafeteria felt large and unwelcoming, students already filing into wherever they usually sat with whomever they usually sat with. Luke cursed himself with convincing his mother to allow him to miss the first 2 weeks of school, giving the school board the excuse of them “still moving” so he wouldn’t receive punishment. He hoped that if he waited a few weeks that when he came in everyone would think he was “the interesting new kid” and would flock to him. Now Luke was alone while everyone else wasn’t. He could never win.

He had his tray lunch in his hands – a turkey sandwich and a small carton of milk. He had opened it to take a sip before paying, so now he was having to balance it as he walked, making sure it didn’t spill over.

He surveyed the lunchroom once again. If he could find at least one group of boys that looked nice, he would force himself to be social and sit with them.  Eventually, he spotted a group of 5 boys who were laughing hysterically to something one of them said. One of the boys had dark hair and squinted eyes when he laughed, and such a contagious smile that it almost brought one to Luke’s face. Another boy had short brown hair and a big nose, laughing as well but didn’t look as inviting. The two other boys were very generic looking, and there was one more boy at the table with his back to Luke. Becoming friends with these boys was his best shot, he decided. Before he could change his mind, Luke began walking quickly to the table.

That had been a major mistake, because right before he got to one of the empty seats he tripped over his own two feet. He attempted to catch himself – and his tray – before they could go toppling to the ground. Unfortunately, he was not successful. He fell right on his face; not before tipping his tray – and opened milk carton – all over the boy with his back to Luke.

“What the –” Luke heard someone say furiously. He looked up in fear to see the boy who had spoken, now standing angrily above him. The boy had dark blond fringe almost covering his eyes, and was a little taller and bigger than Luke. His eyes narrowed down at Luke. The blond gulped.

The entire table that Luke had been walking to was now erupting in laughter at him and the boy with the soaked back. The dark blond haired boy was breathing heavily as he stared at his so-called “friends” who were having a laugh at him, and for a second, Luke thought he was going to cry.

“Beat the shit out of him, Michael!” One of the boys – the one with the big nose and short hair – yelled.

The boy standing up – who Luke knew then was named Michael – looked back at Luke, new anger and rage in his eyes. Luke began to scramble to try to get to his feet, but Michael grabbed the front of his shirt and lifted the blond to his feet first. Now standing face to face, Luke could see Michael was even bigger than he thought he was, having to tilt his head up to look into his eyes.

Luke’s first instinct was to run away as fast as possible. But even if Michael wasn’t holding Luke’s shirt so tight that his knuckles were turning white, Luke might’ve been too captivated by the other boy’s face to run. It wasn’t like Michael’s face was magnificent or anything – he had nice eyes and lips, Luke can remember initially thinking, but besides that it was pretty normal. But there was something that caught Luke off guard completely when he looked at Michael – a feeling of familiarity, almost as if Luke had known the face for years. The feeling seemed to take over Luke completely, leaving him speechless and frozen. It wasn’t until Luke realized Michael was shaking him that he was able to come out of this déjà vu coma.

“Did you hear me, Blondie?” Michael’s voice rang in Luke’s ears. Luke shook his head to get himself back in the moment.

“What?”

“I said,” Michael breathed out, now his face only being a few inches from Luke. “You’re a real klutz for tripping over nothing and spilling all your milk over my back. You’re lucky I’m not in a bad mood, or else I would really let you have it. I don’t want to see your face ever again. Stay away from me, or there will be consequences.”

Michael let go of the front of Luke’s shirt – leaving wrinkles that his mother will kill him for, since she had spent all morning ironing it – and took a step back. Luke took this chance to run out of the cafeteria, as fast as he could, into the nearest bathroom stall. He locked himself inside, hyperventilating, replaying what had just happened in his mind over and over again. Had he really made a fool of himself on the first day at a new school? AND had he really made an enemy on the first day of middle school? Luke honestly thought he was going to be sick on an empty stomach, alone in the bathroom stall.

He began to breathe heavily. He finally forced himself to take a few deep breaths to calm himself down, trying to not let his thoughts get out of hand. _This isn’t the end of the world_ , he thought, _just because I have lunch with that guy doesn’t mean I have to see him every day. I can just avoid his table. And if I never see him again, then I have nothing to worry about._

As for making a fool of himself and tripping in front of everyone went…Luke wasn’t sure how to handle that one. Before he could even begin to think of a solution, the bell rang for the class changed. Deciding that he didn’t want to add being late to class to the list of things that had gone wrong that day, Luke pulled himself together the best he could and exited the bathroom.

~~~

It took Luke a few minutes to finally find his classroom, but when he did a huge wave or relief flushed over him. It was immediately swept away when he walked into the room and saw Michael sitting in a seat towards the back of the room

Luke froze in the doorway as he considered running to the nearest window and jumping out. He noticed Michael was not wearing the same milk-stained shirt as before – the shirt he was wearing now seemed to be 3 sizes too big for him, obviously a shirt he had gotten from the office to replace his other one. He looked funny to Luke, and the blond boy couldn’t help but let out a small laugh.

Immediately, Michael’s head whipped around to him. His eyes narrowed.

“Something funny, Blondie?” Michael asked Luke, sitting up in his seat a little more. This caught the attention of the other kids in the room, as well as the kids who were still filing in.

“Um…no” Luke said, feeling his cheeks turn red.

Michael just smirked back in victory at him. “Didn’t think so.”

Suddenly, Luke felt extremely intense anger and frustration inside him. It was something he had never felt before, and something he never imagined he would feel. He wanted to fight back.

“You only look like you’ve shrunk about 3 sizes.” Luke said, voice not even breaking as he did.

A few girls in the room laughed, and at first Michael looked confused. This gave Luke confidence, so he walked a little further in the room. Michael was immediately on his feet and charging at Luke, stopping right before him.

“Listen, klutz.” Michael stated through gritted teeth, leaning down way too far into Luke’s comfort zone. “I don’t know who the hell you think you are, but I’m not the kind of guy you should mess with. You should be very, _very_ afraid of me. Consider this your last warning.”

“And if I’m not afraid?” Luke retorted, receiving many “ooooo’s” from the class, which had filled up while Michael and Luke had their exchange. Luke noticed Michael’s turn his hands into fists.

“Then I’ll make you afraid.” He said, but before he could make any actions, a voice came from the doorway behind them.

“Clifford! What are you doing?!” Luke turned around to see a young woman in the doorway, who he assumed was their teacher.

“This freak said he was going to attack me!” Michael accused, backing away from Luke. “I was only trying to defend myself.”

“He’s lying!” Luke said, looking desperately between the teacher and Michael. “I never –”

“Michael, we have enough to cover in class today – I don’t have time to deal with you.” The teacher brushed the air with her hand, as Michael’s mouth gaped open in shock. The teacher walked to the front of the room and set some papers down on her desk. “As for you,” She said, referencing to Luke, “I would suggest getting to your class before you get a tardy.”

“Um, actually,” Luke began, “I’m new, and I think I’m in this class.”

“Ugh, are you kidding me?” Luke heard Michael mutter under his breath over his shoulder. Luke turned around to see Michael taking his seat and shooting a new glare at Luke.

“Oh, is that so?” The teacher continued, looking through her papers. “Oh yes! I remember seeing something about that somewhere in here…let me see…Lucas Hemmings?”

“That’s me.” Luke said, as he heard Michael say “Lame name.” behind him at the same time.

“Well, Lucas, You can go ahead and take a seat in any of the open desks you find. Come to me after class and you can give me your email to send you the notes you’ve missed so far this lesson. Now as I said, we have a lot to cover today, so everyone get out their notebooks…”

Everyone took a seat, and luckily Luke was able to find one close to the front – away from Michael. He sat down and began to take notes, never quite shaking the feeling of eyes shooting lasers into the back of his head.

~~~

“What do you mean you want to switch schools?” Luke’s mother asked as she sat across the table from him.

“I just…I don’t know.” Luke looked down at his hands.

“Well…there has to be a reason for this serious question.” Luke’s mother stated, crossing her arms. “You haven’t said a word about not liking the school all week, and you decide to bring it up on a Sunday night?”

Luke had waited to bring the subject up for multiple reasons. For one reason, Luke had purposefully waited until Jack had taken the car out in search of places to apply for jobs so he wouldn’t have to listen to the older boy say ‘that’s just how middle school is’. Luke had also honestly given his best try to ignore Michael the best he could, and make friends. Neither of these plans were going to well. Not only was Luke’s temper with Michael shorter than a blade of grass, but in attempt to avoid him Luke began eating lunch in the library – which wasn’t exactly the best place to make friends.

The 11 year old boy considered lying to his mom, not wanting her to worry as he knew there were other economic issues his family was dealing with at the time. But he knew the only way of her actually considering his wish would be to tell the truth.

“There’s this boy…” Luke began, gulping verbally. “And we haven’t exactly been getting along.”

“What do you mean by that?” Luke’s mother asked.

Luke finally looked up at her. “He’s ruining my life, mom. All he does is throw stuff at the back of my head, make jokes about me to his friends, and call me names.”

“Who’s calling who names?” Luke father asked, appearing in doorway from the living room.

Luke sighed. He had thought his father had fallen asleep on the couch after a long day at work, but he had been mistaken. He hadn’t wanted to have this conversation with him too.

“I just don’t know what to do.” Luke continued quickly, not wanting to repeat himself. “I’ve tried avoiding him, but I can’t really do that when we have the same class with him. I’ve tried defending myself – which I actually am doing a pretty good job of – but he won’t leave me alone!”

“Calm down, Luke, I believe you.” Luke’s mother said, taking his smaller hand in hers.

“Really?” Luke said, hope arising in him.

“Of course I do, sweetie.” Luke’s mother smiled at him, but then her face turned stern. “But you and I both know that there isn’t another middle school close enough for me to drive you to everyday and still get to my job at the same time. I’m afraid changing schools isn’t an option right now.”

Luke felt his heart drop into his stomach. He wasn’t exactly surprised with the answer – he had done his research for other middle schools in the area, and had found out the same information his mother was telling him – but he had hope she would at least consider it.

“What did you mean by defending yourself?” Luke’s mother asked, breaking the silence that had formed between them. His father now had taken a seat at the dinner table as well.

“Oh…well that…” Luke gulped again. If he was being honest, he would say that he was proud of how he had been handling the situation. Michael would hurl an insult at Luke every day when the blond entered the class, and Luke would throw one right back. It would go back and forth until the teacher entered, Luke ending it at that point so he could avoid getting on the teacher’s bad side. Michael had never gotten physical with Luke, even though he had threatened, but Luke didn’t buy it. Michael seemed just as scared of Luke sometimes, the way the blond would be able to come up with crafty response in mere seconds of Michael’s first attack of the day.

But Luke could also tell that Michael would never back down from him, no matter how bad their arguments got. Luke couldn’t say he would do the same.

“You know,” Luke’s father interrupted, noticing Luke didn’t want to answer that question, “There was a boy you used to be close friends with when you went to kindergarten here. What was his name again, Liz?”

“Oh, yes! I remember him!” Luke’s mother said, a bright smile appeared on her face. “Maybe you can search him on Facebook or something; you might even go to the same school and you just haven’t run into him yet. Or if not, he might still live in the area, and maybe you can meet up and spend some time together, rekindling your frienship.”

“What was his name?” Luke inquired, beginning to feel hopeful. He had remembered Jack mentioning the same thing just a week ago.

“His name was Michael.” Liz stated with a smile. Luke felt his stomach flip and his smile fall. “I actually found a picture of the two of you the other day – one that I took of the two of you on the last day of kindergarten. Let me see if I can find it.”

Liz got up from the table and exited the room, returning with a brown packing box, filled with many miscellaneous things.

“Michael?” Luke asked again, voice cracking as he did. “Um…what was his last name?”

“Hmmm…I think it started with a C? But I could be wrong. Here it is!”

Luke quickly jumped out of his seat and scrambled to feet, running over to the other side of the table where his mother was located. A million thoughts ran through his mind – the distant memory of playing marbles with a boy during his kindergarten days; the crying the day he found out he wouldn’t be spending his birthday with his best friend; the moment the world seemed to stop when he looked into Michael’s eyes that day in the cafeteria only a week ago. The blond held his breath as his mom handed him a single photo, knowing that the picture could really confirm the world being a small one after all.

Luke’s eyes scanned the photo, taking it all in. He let out a shaky breath as he set the photo on the table. He ran a hand through his hair, as all the hope that recently filled him drained out.

“Clifford!” Liz said suddenly. “THAT’S his last name! I remember his mother giving me her information and her stating that was their last name.” Pleased with her memory, Luke’s mother turned her attention back to her son. “So what do you think? Are you going to look him up?”

Luke shook his head, not finding the right words to say in his mind. Luke’s mother’s smile faded.

“Why not, sweetie?” She asked.

“Because,” Luke said, taking one last glance at the photo before he began to walk out of the room. “I’ve already met him.”

~~~

“Lucas!” Luke nearly jumped out of his skin when he noticed Michael in the doorway of the school bathroom, leaning against the wall, smirking at him. “So this is where you spend your lunches now? How pathetic.”

“It’s Luke.” Luke corrected Michael, eyebrows furrowed. The mere sight of Michael made Luke’s skin crawl with anger and disgust, but it was also somewhat of a relief to him. Luke had been wanting to talk with the taller boy out of class and alone for the past two weeks – ever since Luke found out Michael was his long lost best friend from kindergarten – but the only place Luke ever seemed to run into him was in class. Now that Luke had him alone and in a small area, maybe he would be able to pitch to him the speech he had been practicing over and over in his head for weeks.

“Don’t care.” Michael said, waltzing over to the nearest urinal, unzipping his pants.

“Anyways...” Luke said, rolling his eyes. “Can we talk?”

Michael glanced up at him in confusion. “Can you wait until I’m done pissing, freak?” Michael said in a disgusted voice. Luke felt his fists tighten and his jaw clench. He did as Michael asked, waiting until the older boy had zipped his pants back up and began to wash his hands. “So what do you want?”

“Um,” Luke began, feeling his face get hot. “I don’t really know how to say this, but…”

“Awww.” Michael cooed; face contorting into a condescending smile. “Are you going to ask me to stop making fun of you every day? Are your little feelings too hurt by my words?”

“No,” Luke said, white hot rage filling his core. He was about to continue, but Michael cut him off again.

“Good. Because I’m not going to stop.” Michael said, squinting his eyes at Luke. “You still haven’t apologized for ruining my shirt nearly a month ago, and you’re half-assed comebacks are too entertaining for me to just give up because you’re wimping out. I’m glad we had this conversation, Lucas, it really straightened thing ou –”

“Jesus, Michael, do you ever stop talking!?” Luke blurted out, catching Michael off guard. Luke began to talk fast, not wanting to lose this advantage he had over him. “Listen, I don’t like you and I know you don’t like me, but I want you to know we used to be friends. Best friends. You taught me so many things, like how to jump rope and how to tie my shoes. And I used to wait outside the detention room every day because I would’ve rather spent my time trying to make your horrible day better at the cost of my own happiness. We were as close as two kids could’ve been, and I have the proof to prove it.”

Luke pulled his backpack over his shoulder and began to rummage through it, while Michael stood across from him, frozen and dumbfounded. When Luke finally found what he was looking for, he moved so he was standing next to Michael so they could both look at it.

And for the first time since before Luke could remember, Michael was silent. He stared at the picture with wide eyes and mouth slightly ajar, as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Luke watched his expression as he slowly took the picture from Luke’s hand.

“I…” Michael began, shaking his head slightly. “I have that picture, that drawing I’m holding in this, in my room at home.” The taller boy shook his head more and more. “It’s been there ever since I can remember.”

“I drew it for you.” Luke said confidently, and finally Michael looked at him. “And that penguin I’m holding? It’s in my room, too. My mom told me that your mother got it for me because you asked her too. It’s my favorite animal. I slept with it every night growing up.”

Michael’s stare bore into Luke, making Luke feel both comforted and uneasy at the same time. Michael returned his eyes to the picture again.

“So you’re really Luke from kindergarten?” Michael said, some emphasis on ‘Luke from kindergarten’, as if it was a nickname Michael had given to a faceless character that left his life at an early age, but was still a major component in it.

“Yeah.” Luke said, a smile forming on his face. “I am.”

Just then, the door swung open, and 4 of Michael’s friends walked in. They were laughing obnoxiously before they spotted the two boys standing together.

“We were looking for you, Mikey.” The tall boy with the big nose said, who Luke had found out later to be named Tony. “What are you doing with Blondie over here?”

Michael suddenly shoved the picture into Luke’s chest, pretending he was never holding it in the first place. “Nothing. Nothing at all. I was just leaving, actually.”

“Nah, I’ve got a better idea.” Tony took a step towards Michael and Luke. There was a sinister look in his eyes, making Luke feel frightened. “Let’s ruin Blondie’s hair by giving him a good old-fashion swirly. What do you say?”

Fear instantly entered Luke’s body, and he made a break for the door, only to be stopped by two of the boys, holding either one of his arms. Luke attempted to squirm free of them, to no avail. He made eye contact with one of the boys, Calum, who stood in the corner watching all of this. He made no effort to help the other two restrain Luke, making Luke initially think good of him, until the blond realized the dark haired boy also wasn’t making an effort to help him break free either.

“Wait!” Luke heard a voice behind him say, noting it was Michaels. Everyone froze and looked at him. With Luke’s head turned, he could see Michael making eye contact with Calum, as if there was a secret conversation going on between them only using their eyes.

“I don’t want another one of my outfits being ruined just to prove a point to this freak.” Michael said, crossing his arms.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Tony said, looking confused. “If you do a swirly right, there’s no way for your uniform to get messy. Only the freak will get wet.”

“The bathroom stalls are nasty, anyways.” Calum said, walking over to Michael’s side, supporting his argument. “I don’t want to be shoved in there just to ruin this guy’s hair.”

“I don’t even think all of us will fit.” Michael commented, glancing over at one of the stalls. “They look pretty tiny. I think the plan is an overall dud.”

Tony looked between the two boys, face full of priceless confusion. “Well…fine! We’ll use a urinal!”

Calum shook his head. “I don’t think that will do, Tony. What if someone walks in and finds us?”

“Yeah.” Michael said, shrugging. “We’d be in so much trouble. I don’t think it’s worth it.”

“Um…okay, what do you suggest then?” Tony looked out of patience as Michael and Calum both rubbed their chins and looked at the ceiling, as if trying to think up something good.

Just then, the bell for class rang, and Michael snapped his finger disappointingly.

“Dammit! Looks like we ran out of time.”

“Yeah, that sucks.” Calum said, walking over to Tony as the other two boys let Luke out of their grip. “But we have to get to class, Tony. Remember what Mr. Sanders said – ‘If you’re late one more time, Anthony, you will receive a one way ticket to the principal’s office!’”

“Shit, you’re right.” Tony ran a hand through his hair. He glared at Luke one last time. “This isn’t over, Blondie.” He said, as he, Calum, and the two other boys walked out of the bathroom. Luke turned to Michael in anger.

“What the hell was that?” Luke asked, almost surprised by how smoothly the curse word came out of his mouth. He never ever cursed, but this intense rage seemed to help him break the rules.

“Excuse me?” Michael said. “That was me saving you from receiving class A bullying via Tony. I’ve seen him do it to other kids before, and it’s brutal. So you’re welcome.”

“You still called me a freak right in front of them! And you were about to leave without saying a word!” Luke exclaimed. “I thought I was ‘Luke from Kindergarten’, your old friend, who maybe you could be friends with again now.”

Michael let out a loud laugh, echoing through the bathroom walls. Luke was filling with anger and frustration, quickly approaching his breaking point.

“You really think that’s going to change anything?” Michael asked, wiping a fake tear out of his eye. “Well, it’s not, Lucas. Or, _Luke from kindergarten,_ if that’s what you’d rather be called. Because unlike you, I have other friends at this school, and I don’t really want to add an annoying blond prick to my list of friends. Sorry to disappoint you, but this doesn’t change anything.”

Michael pushed past Luke for the door, and before Luke could think he spoke out.

“Then why did you stop them?”

“What?” Michael asked, turning to look back at Luke.

“Why did you stop them from giving me a swirly, if this doesn’t change anything?” Luke’s voice was small but stern, pointed directly at the taller boy.

Michael stood frozen by the door, staring Luke down in defeat. He looked flustered and speechless, not knowing how to respond to Luke’s accusation. Eventually, he ripped his eyes away from Luke and exited the bathroom, not turning around to spare the shorter boy a second glance when he muttered the words, “Shut up Luke.”

Luke was fuming, all of the frustration in his body swirling around in his tummy, making him sick. He leaned over and picked the picture he had dropped earlier up, looking over it with eyes that were filling with tears quickly. His plan had failed. Michael was really just as much of a monster on the inside as he was on the outside. Luke was wrong. He couldn’t persuade him.

Luke shoved the picture in his backpack and walked to class, not letting any of the tears in his eyes fall down his face. When he got to the class, He didn’t look at Michael – he just made his way to his seat and sat down, beginning to pull out his materials for class.

“Got something in your eye, Lucas?” Michael asked in a mocking voice from the back of the class. Luke’s jaw clenched again, only for a second.

“Was going to ask you the same thing,” Luke said, a smirk forming on his lips. “Until I realized that was just how unfortunate your face looked.”

So if Luke couldn’t end this war in peace, he was perfectly fine with ending it in battle. He wasn't ever going to lose to Michael again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BEFORE YOU GET SAD just know that it can only get happier from here! I promise the next chapter - that will be out sometime next week - will be fluffier and happier.
> 
> Please leave comments/kudos or hit me up on my tumblr !


	3. 8th Grade

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a warning; punches are thrown in this chapter, though there's not any extreme detail. Its just at the very beginning!

_Let’s be exposed and unprotected_

_Let’s see one another when we’re weak_

It was a hot day in Sydney when _it_ happened

“HEY! THERE HE IS!” The hairs on the back of Luke’s neck stood up at the recognition of the voice. Without turning to see who had yelled it, the blond boy began sprinting in the direction of his house. He hadn’t even left the school grounds yet before he heard the sound of two bikes quickly approaching behind him.

_They usually don_ _’t try to follow me until I_ _’m halfway home,_ Luke thought to himself in a panic as he ran faster. He began to feel hot sweat form on his back beneath his uniform as his backpack bumped up and down with every step he took.

Only a few paces off the school ground, Luke felt something heavy hit the back of his head unexpectedly. The blond fell forward and skidded across the uneven sidewalk. His hand – which he had used to try to catch himself when he fell – was all scraped up and bloody from hitting the pavement.

“We’ve got you now!” A sinister voice echoed from not far behind the blond.

Luke’s mind on autopilot, he began to push the pain in his hand to the back of his mind while he tried to get to his feet to continue running away. Before he could make it there, he was suddenly being lifted by his book bag to his feet and shoved against a tree. His head hit the bark so hard Luke went dizzy for a moment, not being able to clearly identify the person attacking him – even though he had a pretty good idea of who they were.

About halfway through Luke’s sixth grade year, Jack had gotten a car and was able to give the young boy a ride to and from school every day. He had done this all the way throughout the past year and a half, but now that Jack had graduated and was off to University, Luke had to find another way to get to school. Luke’s mother had given him a ride to school the first few days, but ever since she started tutoring the high school kids in math after school – she had gotten a job as being a teacher there the year previous – she was unable to pick him up afterschool. Riding the bus wasn’t an option either – Luke lived so close to the school that the bus didn’t drive anywhere near his house. His only option was to walk home.

And that’s how Luke met Miles and Eric. Luke only knew their names because they would occasionally yell them at each other to catch the other’s attention. They were high schoolers who also walked home from school every day, and lived in the same direction that Luke did. Unfortunately, they were not fond of middle schoolers. Luke found that out pretty quickly when he walked home for the first time and one of the boys yelled at Luke to run home before they could catch him on their bikes. They began to make a game of it, seeing if they could outrun – or rather, outbike – him, which of course they always did. They always seemed to make a point to try to push him over every time they did, leaving Luke with many rips in his uniform that his mother wasn’t happy with.

Luke hadn’t told his family about these instances, for a multitude of reasons. While this was something that Luke always dreaded looking forward to every day, things had never gotten severely physical between them, besides them pushing him on his face. Something told Luke this wasn’t the case this time.

“You know what I just realized, Eric?” Miles said, tightening his grip on Luke’s shoulders, eyes not leaving the smaller boy. Luke gulped.

“What, Miles?”

“We’ve been chasing this little punk for 3 weeks, and we don’t even know his name.” Miles grinned at Luke, waiting. When Luke didn’t speak, the boy pinning him to the tree spit in his face.

“Luke! It’s Luke.” Luke shuddered and shook his head, trying to get the spit off of it to no avail. Miles and Eric laughed.

“Middle schoolers are so funny.” Eric held his side while he laughed, trying to catch his breath.

“Yeah, a little too funny.” Miles laughter faded, and was replaced with a cold hard stare at Luke. “Stop struggling, dipshit!”

With no warning, Luke felt a hard blow to his face. The sound of skin punching skin rang in Luke’s ears before he could process that he had just been punched in his left eye. Luke let out a shriek and began to struggle even more, earning another hard hit in his rib cage. Luke’s eyes were closed, and he could feel tears streaming down his face as he blindly yelled and begged for Miles to let go and for Eric to stop punching him, and Luke began feel dizzy and sick.

“HEY! What the fuck!?” Luke heard a familiar yet unfamiliar voice ring out from a ways away. The blond suddenly felt the two hands holding him to a tree release him, and without the pressure Luke fell on the ground with a hard thump. Luke could hear arguing and yelling and threatening, but the pain in his eye and in his ribs was intensifying with every second that passed, drowning out the voices.

When the blond felt a hand cup his face, he immediately flinched away. The hand grabbed his arm carefully.

“Luke, it’s me. They’re gone, I got rid of them.”

Luke’s auditory system began functioning perfectly again, and the voice he was hearing seemed almost unreal to him. But when he opened his eyes, his fear had been confirmed.

Michael fucking Clifford.

Michael fucking Clifford, the boy who made Luke’s sixth grade a living hell. Michael fucking Clifford, the boy who threw approximately 200 paper balls at his head during lunch nearly every day. Michael fucking Clifford, the boy who’s been tormenting Luke for the past 2 years relentlessly, in every class they shared. Michael fucking Clifford, the boy who _really_ had no interest in being Luke’s friend.

“Get away from me!” Luke squirmed free of Michael, only finally coming to a halt when he rubbed his already-scraped hand on the sidewalk once again, pain shooting through him. Luke had ended up having not one, but _two_ classes with Michael their seventh grade year, and the two boy’s arguments and quarrels had only gotten worse in that time. Luke was stubborn, but Michael was worse, never backing down from a fight even when teachers would get involved. Unlike him, Luke actually cared about his reputations with the teachers, so he knew well enough when to stop.

This year, Luke had been fortunate enough to not have any classes with the taller boy. He also guessed that he must be in a different lunch as well, because Luke always noticed Tony and his two friends sitting together, but Michael and his friend Calum nowhere to be seen. It had been a pleasant change.

“Calm down, I’m not going to hurt you.” Michael said, trying to help Luke on his feet. But Luke continued to pull away from him.

“How do I know that?!” Luke said, tears running down his face in confusion and anger and _pain_. If there was one thing he _didn_ _’t_ need right now, it was Michael messing with him too. But Luke knew that Michael was never going to let him forget the time the blond cried in front of him.

“Have I ever gotten physical with you!?” Michael asked angrily, making Luke freeze his motions. “The answer is no. Also, if I really wanted you physically hurt, why would I have scared those guys away from hurting you?”

Luke honestly didn’t know the answer to that. Luke couldn’t imagine Michael having any kind of reason to protect the blond in any way. The entire situation didn’t make any sense.

“Why?” Luke asked, still frozen on the ground.

Michael kneeled down beside him. “Because those guys are cowards, that’s why. I know both of them – Miles Sweeney and Eric Hodge. They’re both just low-life freshmen who miss the authority they had when they were 8th graders.  They come around the middle school every day after school trying to find some kid who’s weaker than them that they can mess with, to make them feel like they’re worth something. But they aren’t. They’re just… _cowards._ Anyways, my mom works at the same place that Miles’ mother does, so I basically just threatened him with that to get them to go away. Your eye is really swollen.”

Luke nodded slightly, processing the information while he brought his hand up to slightly touch the skin around his eyes. It was definitely swollen alright, to the point of Luke not being able to properly keep his eyelids open. Luke looked up at Michael again.

“That’s not what I meant.” Luke said. “I meant, why did you help me?”

The whole ‘I know I loathe you and you loathe me, so what’s in it for you’ part of the question went unsaid, but was understood. Luke looked up into Michael’s eyes, and even though his vision was impaired he could still see the slight uneasiness in Michael’s eyes. Luke realized in this moment that he hadn’t even seen Michael since the end of seventh grade. The taller boy hadn’t changed much, except for maybe growing an inch or two taller and losing some of the baby fat in his face (Luke wished one day he would be that lucky). But there was a weakness in Michael’s eyes that Luke noticed, and it was something he had never seen before.

“How far away is home?” Michael asked as he rose to his feet, completely ignoring Luke’s question. Luke wasn’t surprised – Michael wasn’t always a fan of answering something he really didn’t want to.

“5 blocks.” Luke winced as he felt Michael’s hands go underneath his armpits to help him stand up. Luke obliged, wincing by the time he was finally standing upright again.

“Okay.” Michael said, swinging his book bag over his shoulder that he had dropped at some point, as well as picking up a guitar case. Luke raised an eyebrow at it – he hadn’t even known Michael could play, let alone brought it to school. “Let’s get going.”

“What?” Luke asked, scrunching his eyebrows as he watched Michael pick up the blond’s book bag. “Hey, don’t touch my stuff!”

“I’m trying to help, Blon – I mean, Luca – I mean, Luke.” Michael’s cheeks were absolutely redder than Luke had ever seen him before, as he swung Luke’s book bag around the same arm as his book bag. “Just let me get this.”

“You’re not walking me home.” Luke said, finding his voice secure and firm for the first time in the last 10 minutes. “I don’t want you to know where I live. The last thing I need is you and Tony to be egging my house –”

“Honestly, Luke, I don’t give a shit where you live.” Michael rolled his eyes at Luke. “But I’m not letting you walk back home alone, and give those cowards another chance to hurt you. Or any other cowards, for that matter. And that’s final.”

Luke was gearing up for another comeback when the pain in his ribs intensified, and he nearly fell over. Michael immediately leaned up against Luke to support him, only to have the blond push him away after a second.

“I can walk on my own.” Luke said bitterly, holding his right side where his ribs had taken the blow.

Michael scoffed, rolling his eyes yet again. “Whatever you say, princess.”

~~~

The walk home was silent. There was a good three feet of distance between the two boys the entire way, as per Luke’s request. Sometimes Luke would steal glances at Michael, and would catch him looking back. For the first half of the walk, Luke half expected Michael to suddenly run off with his backpack, cursing him for ever actually believing that the taller boy would ever spend his time helping the blond with anything.

But it never happened. Michael walked Luke all the way to his neighborhood, all the way to his house, all the way to his front door, all the way into his mother’s arms before he finally left Luke.

~~~

“Well, there’s no broken bones anywhere in your ribs,” The doctor began, “But that swollen eye will take some time to heal completely. Keep ice on it when you can, alright?”

Liz nodded and thanked the doctor, asking him a few questions before they were on the way home.

The ride back to their house was as silent as the walk home was. Luke felt sick to his stomach for the fear he caused his mom – she nearly cried when she first saw the state he was in when she returned from work, taking him from Michael. They rushed to the hospital immediately after, waiting in the lobby of the emergency room for about an hour before they were even able to meet with a doctor, and then were confirmed that Luke only suffered from a few bruises here and there. He was lucky.

When they reached the house, Luke began to open the door of the car, but Liz clicked the lock button before he had a chance.

“I think we should talk for a minute before we go inside.” She suggested, looking at him with red-rimmed eyes. Luke sighed in response. “How long have these boys been tormenting you, baby?”

Michael had done all the talking when Liz had arrived at the house that day, explaining that Luke’s damages were the work of a couple of high school bullies. Michael had promised that they wouldn’t bother him ever again after he talked to them, but both Liz and Luke had their doubts.

“Since the first day of school.” Luke said in a small, guilty voice.

“Oh, Lucas –”

“I’m really sorry.” Luke cut her off, not wanting her to start almost crying again. “It’s just – you and dad have a lot going on, like economically and everything, and with Ben and Jack at college I didn’t want this to be another thing you guys had to worry about. I never knew it was going to get this bad, or I would have told you. Please don’t feel bad.”

“I’m just so sorry that you would ever feel like the money our family had would be more of a priority then your well-being.” Liz said, eyes filling with tears.

Luke felt like dirt. Lower than dirt.

“It’s not like that, mom; I know you and dad love me –”

“I’ll quit tutoring.” Liz stated firmly. “There’s plenty of other teachers at the high school who can take my place, and it doesn’t pay _that_ well –”

“No!” Luke said, grabbing his mother’s hand. “I know how badly you’ve wanted this tutoring job, ever since we moved here. I’m not going to let you give it away just because of one bad instance –”

“That ended up with you having a black eye and multiple bruised ribs.” Liz finished for him. Luke winced at the memory.

After a few seconds of silence passed, Liz sighed. “For now, you can either walk over to the high school every day and wait in my room for me, or you can wait at the middle school an hour after school for me to pick you up. You’re not walking home ever again.”

Luke nodded. He had expected the conversation to go this way, and he couldn’t say he wasn’t happy about never having to walk home from school again.

“I’m just so relieved that boy was there to stop them from continuing.” Liz said, shuddering at the thought. “It was very brave of him.”

Luke looked out the window, the memory of Michael’s voice scary and harsh, but directed at his enemies instead of Luke. He also remembered Michael’s hands on him, but instead of a tormenting way, in a gingerly, careful way.

Everything was a little confusing.

“Yeah, it was.” Luke concluded.

~~~

The next day at school, Luke picked up his lunch tray and began walking to his usual table with the people he always sat with. They were classroom friends – the people you can have a nice conversation with in class, but never interact outside of school. Luke hadn’t exactly accomplished his goal of ‘making any real friends’ that he had made 2 years prior.

As he began his walk, he glanced over at the table Tony was sitting at, yet again not spying Michael or Calum. Luke began to ponder if Michael missed sitting with his best friend at lunch, being able to make fun of Luke any chance they got. It made the blond’s fingers grip the lunch tray tightly with hatred.

Then, a peculiar thing happened. As Luke continued to survey the room, he spotted Calum’s figure on the opposite side of the room, sitting with a bunch of football jocks. This wasn’t too surprising, due to Calum being the first 8th grader to get on the high school’s varsity football team in decades. What _was_ surprising was who was sitting with them.

Luke made eye contact with Michael the moment he spotted him, as if the taller boy had been watching Luke from a far. Michael began to look Luke up and down, obviously judging how he had been holding up after what had happened the previous day. Michael’s face seemed to calm when he noticed that Luke seemed to be in a pretty good shape.

Luke realized then that Michael had actually had the same lunch with him since the beginning of the year – he just wasn’t sitting with the people he usually did. _Why isn_ _’t he sitting with Tony? Why is he sitting with the jocks instead?_ Luke knew that Michael didn’t like or play sports at all. So why isn’t he sitting with the bullies like he always used to?

Confused and experiencing some pain in his throbbing eye, Luke turned his attention away from Michael and sat down with his friends. He didn’t let himself spend another moment questioning the motives of the boy he absolutely despised.

~~~

“Luke Hemmings?”

Luke looked up from his spot in the corner of the middle school office. He was in the middle of preparing himself for the next hour he would spend waiting for his mother to be done tutoring so he could be picked up.

The voice came from a someone who had just walked through the office doors, staring directly  into Luke’s eyes. The person was a tall boy with light brown straightened fringe, wearing a band t-shirt and a wide smile. Luke immediately recognized him as a high schooler by his lack of uniform.

“Um, yes?” Luke answered, beginning to get a nervous feeling in his gut. The blond couldn’t help but feel uneasy around any high schooler after just being beaten up by two of them the day prior. That being said, the boy in front of him looked anything but intimidating. Luke forced himself to relax a little bit.

“Hi, I’m Ashton.” The high schooler’s smile seemed to get even wider as he walked over to stand in front of Luke. “I think your brother used to tutor me a little in statistics last year? Jack, right?”

“Yeah, that’s him.” Luke smiled at the thought, though he didn’t have any recollection of Jack ever tutoring anyone – or ever mentioning an ‘Ashton’. “How did you know about me?”

“Well, the resemblance is uncanny!” He exclaimed, laughing as he sat down by Luke. “You both have the same blue eyes and blond hair and everything. He mentioned your name once or twice and that you were a middle schooler, so I just put two and two together.”

“Oh.” was all that Luke could say. A thick silence suddenly formed between them, and Luke began to feel very uncomfortable.

“Cool shirt.” Luke commented, pointing at Ashton’s torso.

“No way! You like Good Charlotte too!?” Ashton exclaimed, excitement covering his face.

“Yeah, they’re actually my favorite band.”

“That’s so awesome, dude, they’re one of my favorites too.” Ashton nodded. “Nice music taste.”

“Thanks.” Luke smiled. He was about to ask the older boy why he was in the office in the first place when Ashton beat him to it.

“So what are you doing in here anyways? Schools out for the day, isn’t it?”

“I’m just waiting for my mom to pick me up.” Luke blushed at how uncool that sounded. He had only spent the last 2 minutes knowing Ashton, and he already felt like he was in the presence of royalty. Ashton gave off the aura that he was very well liked, and seemed very good at making people like him. “She tutors math after school, and she doesn’t get off until 4.”

“4!?” Ashton exclaimed loudly, making Luke jump a little. “That’s 45 minutes from now! You’re just going to sit in here and wait!?”

“I…um…don’t really have another choice.” Luke said, blush growing a deeper red.

“Well, where do you live?”

Luke raised an eyebrow. _Why does it matter?_

“5 blocks away, south. Why?”

Ashton’s face lit up completely, almost scaring Luke. “You’re kidding, right?”

“No…”

“Well, then you’ve got yourself a ride home, young Hemmings!” Ashton exclaimed, standing up. “Let’s go!”

“Wait a minute.” Luke said, shaking his head in confusion. “You’re just…going to give me a ride home? For nothing? I barely know you.”

“You live in the same direction as me.” Ashton explained. “And I knew your brother, and he was a cool dude. Anyways, I’m not going to just leave you here to stare at your feet for the next 45 minutes. Let’s go.”

Luke was still doubtful about someone who he’d barely known for 5 minutes giving him a ride home, but there was something about Ashton that made Luke trust him. An undeniable kind of trust, one that you almost can’t argue with. So even though everything Luke had ever been told was going against it, Luke followed the older boy out of the office and into the hallway.

“Wait, why were you in the office in the first place?” Luke asked as they exited the building.

“I had originally come back here to visit my old music teacher,” Ashton began, twirling his car keys around his finger. “But when I passed his room earlier, he wasn’t in there. I was going to ask the office if they could give him a ring for me, but it’s not that big of a deal. I just wanted to let him know I got a job at a music shop down town – he gave me a really good recommendation, so yeah. Just wanted to say thanks.”

“Congrats! That’s awesome.” Luke said. “So are you a junior?”

“Sophomore, actually.” Ashton took a sharp left turn to get to the driver’s side of the car. It wasn’t the most luxurious car Luke had ever seen, but it was still pretty nice. “I got my license early because of my job. I haven’t even had it for a full week yet!”

“Wow, Lucky.” Luke commented, even though all he could think about was his mother’s face when she finds out he got a ride home from a highschooler, he just met that day, who hadn’t even had their license for a full week yet. Maybe all those details weren’t necessary when he would recount the story to her later.

Luke gave Ashton directions to his house, and they began their drive. Luke realized quickly that Ashton was a pretty good driver for being underage, so his mother had nothing to worry about. Luke also found out that Ashton and him had a very similar music taste, so they ended up spending the entire car ride talking about that. When they arrived at Luke’s house, Ashton gave the blond his number.

“I don’t start work until four, so I can give you rides home every day if you need them!”

“Are you sure?” Luke asked, feeling like a burden. “I don’t want it to be out of your way –”

“Bro, I literally live 3 blocks up from you. I pass by your house every time I drive home. It’s nothing.”

“Thanks. So much.”

“Of course.” Ashton smiled. “You seem like a cool guy, I think we’ll get along.”

After saying quick goodbyes, Ashton was backing out of Luke’s driveway and continuing down the street. It wasn’t until his car was out of sight did Luke realize that Ashton hadn’t said a word about the very visible black eye the younger boy had. Luke also realized that Ashton had said that Jack had tutored him in statistics, even though Luke can clearly remember statistics being Jack’s hardest class. There was something very peculiar about the whole situation, and even though Luke had a guess about the answer, it was almost too far-fetched to believe.

~~~

One month had passed since Ashton had started giving Luke rides home from school, and it was as if Luke’s entire life was shaping up. He could honestly say that Ashton was the first real friend he had, even if the time they spent together was limited to 5 minutes in a car every day. Sometimes Ashton would swing by a fast food place after school to get him and Luke something to eat before he had work, and once he even let Luke come and spend the afternoon at work with him.

The place Ashton worked was an instrument shop, and Luke had never before seen someone so passionate about what they did. Whenever someone would come in the store looking for an instrument to buy – most of the time it was a guitar – Ashton would pull a few off the wall and explain every little detail to the costumer, looking as fascinated in the instruments as they were. It was a beautiful thing.

On some particular days, Ashton would have to rush to work right after school, or he would have something planned with his other friends from high school, so he couldn’t give Luke a ride home. Luke didn’t mind, though – he would usually try to get some of his homework done in the office during this time while he waited for his mother.

It was one of those days when _it_ happened.

Luke had realized that he had forgotten one of his text books in his locker, so he left the office to go retrieve it. On his way back, he heard angry yelling come from a classroom down a separate hall way. Intrigued, Luke followed the sound until he found the classroom it was coming from.

He was surprised when he saw his familiar, tall, fringed enemy leaning back on a desk in front of an elderly teacher. The teacher was the one producing the yelling.

“Now don’t you think it’s slightly pathetic that you’re asking for extra credit this early in the semester?” The older teacher asked.

“We’ve only had one grade in the class so far; an in-class assignment that I wasn’t here for.” Michael’s voice was so quiet compared to the teacher’s that he almost couldn’t hear him. “You won’t let me make up the assignment, so I was wondering if there was som –”

“It’s written in the syllabus that I don’t give out extra credit!” The teacher announced loudly, making both Michael and Luke jump. “And it’s not my fault that you were unlucky, Mr. Clifford. You’ll just have to wait for the test to try to make it up.”

“But midterm grades will be out by then.” Michael argued. Luke could see the other boy’s patience wearing thin. “I really don’t want a 0 for this class on it.”

“Well, you should’ve thought about that before you missed a day of class.” Michael dropped his head down in a disappointed motion, and the teacher raised an eyebrow. “You know, Michael, I taught your father when he was an 8th grader as well. I never thought anyone could disappoint me more than _he_ did. You, however, have managed to be even more useless and worthless than he was.”

Michael’s head shot up, and his rage got the better of him. He was immediately on his feet and in the teacher’s face.

“YOU TAKE THAT BACK! HOW DARE YOU TALK ABOUT MY –”

“Another word and I’ll fail you!” The teacher boomed, voice echoing through the classroom.

Michael went silent immediately. He gulped verbally while he took a step back, his chest was rising and falling fast, and his face red with embarrassment and anger. Luke felt like his heart was being clenched by a fist while watching it.

“That’s what I thought.” The teacher smirked at Michael. “If you ever try to raise your voice at me again, I’ll send you straight to the principle, and you can kiss your good grades goodbye. Now get out of my classroom.”

Michael was frozen for a second, face looking like he was about to break. He seemed like he was holding his breath as he slowly reached for his book bag and headed for the exit of the room.

Luke immediately hid for cover behind the door before Michael could spot him. Luke watched Michael pass him and begin to walk down the hall, the teacher closing his door after Michael had left. Luke couldn’t believe what he had just witnessed, but wasn’t able to fully process everything before he saw Michael pause halfway down the hallway.

Luke examined Michael, staring at his back as the taller boy stood frozen. The blond noticed he was shaking slightly, looking like he was about to burst. Then he did.

Michael let out a sob, dropping his book bag and punched the nearest locker, then immediately leaned back against it and sunk to the ground. He pulled his knees in and sat in a fetal position, crying with his face in his knees. Luke was stunned at the sight – never in his wildest dreams would he have ever thought he would see Michael Clifford crying. But there he was, against the lockers in a ball of tears.

Luke considered running in the opposite direction towards the office, not wanting to embarrass Michael further. But then he remembered a time when Michael could have done the same to him, but didn’t. Luke forced his stiff legs to walk in the direction of Michael.

Michael immediately jumped when he felt a body next to him, and then glared up at Luke.

“Not today, Luke. Please, just not today.”

“He’s wrong, Michael.” Luke said, sinking down to sit next to him. “You’re not useless or worthless.”

Michael shook his head. “I don’t need your sympathy.” Sniffling, he began to stand up.

“You know he can get fired for what he said to you, right?” Luke said quickly as he began to stand up with him, not wanting Michael to leave before he finished speaking. “And I saw the whole thing too, so you have a witness.”

“Listen, Luke,” Michael pulled his backpack over his shoulder. “You don’t owe me anything, alright? What happened last month wasn’t me going out of my way to be nice to you. I did it because they could’ve fucking killed you, and somebody needed to let them know they aren’t better than anyone else for beating up a middle schooler, okay? So don’t worry – you don’t have to act like you give a shit about me. Because I don’t give a shit about you either.”

Michael began to walk in the other direction down the hall, and Luke knew that if he didn’t say what was on his mind now, he never would.

“Then why did you ask Ashton to start giving me rides home from school?”

Michael snapped his head back around, initially looking terrified, then suspicious.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Michael asked, trying to sound confused but overall failing.

“Ashton didn’t ask about my black eye when he first met me.” Luke took a few steps forward towards Michael.

“Maybe he was trying to be polite?” Michael suggested, taking a step back for every step Luke took towards him.

“He also said he knew my older brother, but when I asked Jack about him he didn’t remember Ashton at all.”

“It’s easy to forget people you tutor years ago.”

“And lastly,” Luke came to a stop once he realized Michael was backed against a wall, unable to escape him. “I noticed him getting multiple texts from someone named ‘Mikey C’ on his phone whenever he was driving. I assume that would be you?”

Michael furrowed his eyebrows. “What? My name in Ash’s phone is ‘Cliffdawg’.  It always has been.”

The taller boy’s eyes went wide when he suddenly realized what he had said, and Luke smirked up at him in victory. Michael confirming he knew the ‘Ashton’ Luke was referring too was proof enough. Michael face palmed.

“So let me rephrase my question.” Luke crossed his arms. “If you really don’t give a shit about me, why did you go out of your way to get someone else to give me rides home from school?”

Michael shook his head, not making eye contact with Luke. The shorter boy examined Michael’s entire face, taking in his pale blue eyes and tear-stained cheeks that were reddening by the moment.

“We don’t have to be enemies, Michael.” Luke stated softly.

Suddenly, Michael’s eyes met Luke’s with a confused stare.

“We’re not enemies.” Michael said in a questioning tone, as if perplexed as to why Luke would ever assume that they were. Luke’s shoulders slouch in equal confusion.

“We’re…not?”

“Hey, you two!” A teacher had stuck their head out of a classroom, glaring at the two boys. “What are you still doing on school grounds? It’s a quarter after three; you should either be in the office or out in the courtyard to be picked up!”

“Yes, Ma’am.” Luke and Michael responded immediately. But when Luke began to walk to the office, he noticed Michael walking the other direction towards the courtyard.

“Where are you going?” Luke asked in a whisper, not wanting to coax the same teacher out of her room.

“I’m walking home.” Michael turned his head sideways to answer so he wouldn’t have to stop.

“You walk home!?” Luke exclaimed. “But why can’t Ashton just –”

“Luke!” The blond turned to his left to see Ashton calling to him from the office. “I’ve been waiting here for you for 10 minutes! Plans with my friends got cancelled, so I can take you home after all.”

Luke looked hopefully back in the direction Michael was headed, only to see an empty hallway. Luke had missed him.

“What are you looking at?” Ashton inquired, beginning to walk over to Luke.

“Nothing.” Luke responded shortly, walking back towards the office, meeting Ashton half way and grabbing his arm. “Let’s just get out of here.”

In the span of a few minutes, everything Luke had believed to be true had been proven wrong. 1) Apparently, he and Michael weren’t enemies. Luke wondered if they ever really had been. 2) Michael did have a breaking point. Luke just never got him to the point of anger to reach it. 3) Even though Luke was right about Michael getting Ashton to give him rides home, Michael himself was probably doing it at the cost of him not having a ride, because he was too proud to ride along with Luke.

While Luke was thankful for Michael’s sacrifice, he found it silly and childish that Michael didn’t want Luke to know he did this for him just because he didn’t want to seem like he cared about the blond. _He has to care at least a little to go through all of this for me_ , Luke couldn’t help but think. But the way Michael seemed so reluctant to tell Luke the truth about Ashton mixed with him leaving abruptly to walk home would suggest otherwise.

~~~

Throughout the rest of the school year, Luke would spend approximately half of his lunch periods stealing glances at Michael. And on a good day, Luke would catch him looking back.

Michael continued to sit with Calum, never once returning to the bullies he once called his friends. Luke suspected that they must’ve had a falling out of some sort.

Whenever Michael and Luke would pass each other in the hallway, whether it was bustling with students or empty, they would always act preoccupied or distracted so they wouldn’t have to talk. While part of Luke wished they could be on better terms, he would take silence between them over throwing insults at each other any day.

Even with the battle between them finally over, there was still something yanking at Luke’s insides, constantly bringing nearly every thought and wish back to he and Michael somehow becoming friends. Luke knew that if he pestered Ashton enough, he might have a chance of forming a friendship with Michael, whether it be forced or not. But Luke had a feeling that if Michael really wanted to be friends with Luke, he would be. There was nothing stopping him. But he wasn’t making any efforts.

If that’s what Michael wanted, then Luke would accept it. He owed him that much.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave comments/kudos or hit me up on my tumblr !

**Author's Note:**

> I will update as soon as possible, uni classes permitting!
> 
> Please leave comments/kudos or hit me up on my tumblr !


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